The Golden Eagles meet up with the Falcons in the north Chicago suburbs.
And so, here we are, at the final non-conference game of the 2025 Marquette men’s lacrosse season.
It would seem that things are trending upwards in Jake Richard’s first season both in charge at Marquette and as a Division 1 head coach. The Golden Eagles have won three of their last four games, including pulling off an overtime victory against Utah last time out. The loss in there was against a top 15 ranked Harvard team, and given the 20-16 final score there and the 14-11 margin heading to the fourth quarter, I suspect that the Crimson don’t exactly have completely fond memories of how that one went for them.
Without diving too deep into what’s going on with the rest of the Big East, we can just safely assume that league play won’t be a particularly fun picnic in the park, because it never is. With that in mind, Marquette has to approach Saturday’s non-conference finale — at a neutral site in the north Chicago suburbs, for some reason, I understood that when it was Notre Dame back in the day, but Air Force? Weird. — as something of the first game of Big East play.
Saturday’s game has to be an extension of the good vibes and positive development that we’ve seen from Marquette since the 22-9 loss to #1 Notre Dame if MU wants to have a chance to get into the four team conference tournament. It has to be an on-ramp to league play, a continuation of the progress that the results on the field are showing in Richard’s first year in charge. If that’s what it is, then a pathway to a top four finish and Marquette’s first appearance in the Big East tournament since 2022 starts to be visible.
If it’s a step back, if Marquette doesn’t show the dogged determination that it took to topple the Utes last week in Salt Lake City, and so on and so forth, well, it’s going to be hard to find a way to get past the other five squads in the conference, isn’t it? Remember: Marquette went 0-5 in Big East play last year, with two losses by three goals and another by four. The margins for success may not be large, and a step back in development this week are just going to shrink those up a bit.
Game #8: vs Air Force Falcons (2-5)
Date: Saturday, March 22, 2025
Time: Noon Central
Location: Loyola Academy, Wilmette, Illinois
Streaming: Nope!
Live Stats: Stat Broadcast by way of Air Force
Twitter Updates: @MarquetteMLax, maybe?
The Line: Marquette +1.5 from our friends at Draft Kings
Marquette is 3-1 all time against Air Force, including recording the program’s first ever victory in an 8-6 contest in Colorado Springs back in 2013. MU’s loss in the series came in a 2022 meeting in Milwaukee, while the Golden Eagles picked up a 12-6 victory last year in the series’ most recent encounter.
Let’s start with this: Air Force was picked to finish second in the ASUN this season, which is notable because Marquette is coming off an overtime win against Utah, the unanimous pick to win the ASUN. That was the good early season news for the Falcons, and for a while, it was the only good news as they started off the year with four straight losses. Losing 14-8 at home to #14 Denver in a Rocky Mountains derby probably wasn’t super fun, but it’s at least losing to a ranked team. Can’t say the same thing for 11-8 at Lafayette in the opener, or 17-11 at Ohio State, or 15-7 at Boston University.
I’m going to point out that Air Force is coming off a 16-11 loss at #9 Duke two weeks ago in their most recent game before I note their two wins on the season. That game is more competitive that maybe the margin makes it look, as Air Force had it within a goal, 8-7, with 11 minutes left in the third quarter. They gave up four straight to end the quarter after that, but then played the Blue Devils even again the rest of the way.
“Being pesky against a top 10 team” is relevant here because Air Force absolutely shelled Quinnipiac and Marist in their two victories so far this season. 21-8 and 23-8 are your scores respectively there, with a 14-3 stretch in the middle two quarters against QU and a 16-4 halftime advantage against the Red Foxes. Hey, look, maybe those teams are bad, but that’s what Air Force is capable of when fully engaged. The Falcons converted at least 50% of their possessions into goals in both of those games, and that’s helped boost them to Lacrosse Reference’s #9 ranked offense in terms of efficiency this season.
Caelan Driggs is the #1 guy on the scouting report, with 24 of his 53 shots on the year finding the back of the net for a team high in goals. Driggs only has a one point advantage on Josh Yago in that column, as Yago has 16 goals and 15 assists so far this season. Slowing down Driggs’ scoring pace will be the most important thing, but Yago can contribute in a lot of ways and the MU defenders are going to have to be mindful of him as well.
Jake Marek has gotten all seven starts in net for Air Force, so there’s no reason to think that Saturday will be any different. He’s stopping 48% of shots on goal this season, but he’s coming in with more saves than goals allowed in each of the Falcons’ last three games. Marek’s goals against average has drifted back north of 12 per 60 minutes after getting it down under 12 from a season worst 13.54 following the loss to BU.